out together;
  The peacocks attacked him madly before,
    And pulled out each chicken feather. 
  And when he stood stripped clean down to the skin,
    A horrible thing to the rest,
  He learned this sad lesson when it was too late—­
    As his own simple self he was best.

Joseph Morris.

KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON

The author of these homely stanzas has caught perfectly the spirit which succeeds in the rough-and-tumble of actual life.

  If the day looks kinder gloomy
  And your chances kinder slim,
  If the situation’s puzzlin’
  And the prospect’s awful grim,
  If perplexities keep pressin’
  Till hope is nearly gone,
  Just bristle up and grit your teeth
  And keep on keepin’ on.

  Frettin’ never wins a fight
  And fumin’ never pays;
  There ain’t no use in broodin’
  In these pessimistic ways;
  Smile just kinder cheerfully
  Though hope is nearly gone,
  And bristle up and grit your teeth
  And keep on keepin’ on.

  There ain’t no use in growlin’
  And grumblin’ all the time,
  When music’s ringin’ everywhere
  And everything’s a rhyme. 
  Just keep on smilin’ cheerfully
  If hope is nearly gone,
  And bristle up and grit your teeth
  And keep on keepin’ on.

Anonymous.

THE DISAPPOINTED

Those who have striven nobly and failed deserve sympathy.  Sometimes they deserve also praise unreserved, in that they have refused to do something ignoble which would have led to what the world calls success.  They have lived the idea which Macbeth merely proclaimed: 

  “I dare do all that may become a man;
  Who dares do more is none.”

  There are songs enough for the hero
    Who dwells on the heights of fame;
  I sing of the disappointed—­
    For those who have missed their aim.

  I sing with a tearful cadence
    For one who stands in the dark,
  And knows that his last, best arrow
    Has bounded back from the mark.

  I sing for the breathless runner,
    The eager, anxious soul,
  Who falls with his strength exhausted. 
    Almost in sight of the goal;

  For the hearts that break in silence,
    With a sorrow all unknown,
  For those who need companions,
    Yet walk their ways alone.

  There are songs enough for the lovers
    Who share love’s tender pain,
  I sing for the one whose passion
    Is given all in vain.

  For those whose spirit comrades
    Have missed them on their way,
  I sing, with a heart o’erflowing,
    This minor strain to-day.

  And I know the Solar system
    Must somewhere keep in space
  A prize for that spent runner
    Who barely lost the race.